You Still Don’t Believe in Climate Change?

By Bob Best, Energy and Sustainability Services at Jones Lang LaSalle

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just issued a troubling little news flash today …

July 2012 was hottest month on record for contiguous U.S. since record keeping began in 1895.

There are still quite a few people that don’t want to admit that human beings are altering the planet’s climate through activities that increase the greenhouse effect, but it’s getting harder and harder to deny.

Consider some other problematic, but undeniable, developments …

• A team of scientists at the University of California at Berkeley reported late in 2011 that since the 1950s, the earth has warmed about 1 degree Centigrade.  Scientists say that, average U.S. temperatures could be 3 to 9 degrees higher by the end of the century.
• The National Resources Defense Council reports:
  • In 2002, Colorado, Arizona and Oregon endured their worst wildfire seasons ever.
  • Drought created severe dust storms in Montana, Colorado and Kansas, and floods caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in Texas, Montana and North Dakota.
  • Since the early 1950s, snow accumulation has declined 60 percent and winter seasons have shortened in some areas of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington.
  • Warming ocean temperatures are fueling more severe hurricanes.  The destructive potential of hurricanes has greatly increased along with ocean temperature over the past 35 years.

Climate change is no longer a far-away problem that we can pretend does not exist.  Just walk out your front door; it will hit you like a blast of hot air.  Better get used to it.